In Search of a Firecrest

There has been a Firecrest caught and re-trapped 3 times in the past month down at Far Pasture. I thought I would head down and try and get a glimpse of the beauty. The bird has been trapped on 20^th of February and the 14^th and 15^th of February. The reports don’t specify the sex nor are there any photos of the bird in question. I am not saying there lying but I am sceptical about it.

Anyway I headed down to the car park where a few other birders were searching for it…without luck. I was down there from 11:30 – 14:30 and all I got was half a dozen Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit. One of the birders at around decided to call it a day and headed off but sharp came back and said no one will be going anywhere anytime soon?!?! The birder said that a lorry had come off the track and is blocking anyone getting through. Fantastic, how am I meant to get to work?

Well as you can see the Lorry driver mad an absolute hash of going down the road, Numpty! The lorry had 8000 litres of Caustic Soda on board and if that spilt there would be big problems. So a recovery truck was ordered to tow the plonker out…that didn’t work so they ordered an offroad forklift ruck to empty the goods and then tow it out like that.

I didn’t have time to wait so I had to get a lift to work. When I went back to the car park the other birders just put a cherry on top of the cake! “The Firecrest has just been showing.” Ahh Feck, I had to get walking home so didn’t see it.

I went down again today in search and spent 2 ½ hours down there. Still no joy today however I did get a photo or two of some wildlife that was kicking about most of the time I was there. Bird of the day would at best be a Female Sparrowhawk or the singing Reed Buntings on the pond.

One of Four Bank Voles

Willow Tit

Female Chaffinch

Rocky Robin

Oh, and the mystery bird answer for the photo a couple of weeks ago was of a Male Pheasant.